When we were writing Animal House, we assumed it would be the
most successful comedy ever. Our generation had broken into
television with SNL, and this was going to be the first “new”
Hollywood comedy. It was our attempt to capture those years, right
up to November 1963, when there was a feeling that the kids were
taking over the country for the first time. In our minds, the end
of that movie — the parade, all that euphoria — takes place the
day before Kennedy was shot. Because the day after, none of that
mattered anymore.